Citing concerns with recent detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza in backyard poultry and wild birds in the Pacific Northwest, China has banned all poultry and egg products from the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday night.
China is the No. 4 importer of U.S. poultry and egg products, consuming 5 percent of the export supply in the first 11 months of 2014, according to USDA data.
"There's absolutely no justification for China to take such a drastic action," said Jim Sumner, president of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, in a statement. "In fact, these isolated and remote incidents are hundreds if not thousands of miles away from major poultry and egg production areas."
Trade standards call for regional -- rather than nationwide -- bans if there is a disease threat.
Hong Kong, the No. 3 importer of U.S. poultry and egg products, only banned products from regions that had reported the disease when it raised concerns about avian influenza in late December and earlier this month.
"Most all of our other trading partners have taken some sort of regionalized approach, and have limited their restrictions to the state or, in some cases, to the county," Sumner said. "We would have expected China to do the same."
The ban is nothing new to Arkansas. China banned Arkansas chickens in July 2013 after a Tyson Foods flock in Scott County caught avian flu. The flock was isolated, euthanized and disposed of to prevent the spread of the disease. Although no further incidents have been reported, the ban has remained in place.
Virginia, New York, Wisconsin, California and New Jersey have been hit with similar bans.
Still, in the first 11 months of 2014, China consumed $288 million in poultry and egg products from the United States, according to the USDA. Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, said China imported $84 million worth of chicken feet -- a product that would be hard to market in other parts of the world -- and $141 million in chicken meat.
Springdale-based Tyson Foods, the nation's largest chicken producer, lists China as a major sales market. But Worth Sparkman, a Tyson spokesman, said he didn't think the ban would have a big effect on the company's business.
"Since avian influenza hasn't been found in any commercial U.S. poultry flock, we're disappointed about China banning poultry products," he said in a statement. "There may be some impact to our business, but we believe the volume will be absorbed by other global markets."
China's move follows a Russian ban on agricultural imports from any country that has sanctioned it for actions in Ukraine, including the United States. The ban, which began in August, is for one year.
Russia was the No. 4 buyer of poultry and egg products in 2013, accounting for $323 million in trade.
"I don't think that growers will see an immediate impact. Most of them, their contracts have been set, at least in the near term," Super said about China's ban. "I think a lot of this product at least in the short term should be able to be absorbed.
"But if this ban is in place for a prolonged period -- coupled with the Russian ban -- then we might start to see some significant setbacks."
Business on 01/14/2015